Field
The present invention relates to a saddle-type vehicle.
Description of the Related Art
A saddle-type vehicle, such as a motorcycle, in which an engine is supported by a cross pipe forming the vehicle body frame is conventionally known, for example in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-91113 (Patent Document 1).
In the motorcycle relating to Patent Document 1, a tubular member into which a bolt is inserted is provided on the cross pipe and the bolt inserted into the tubular member from a rear side along the front-rear direction is fastened directly to a rear part of the crankcase of the engine.
In this motorcycle relating to Patent Document 1, the crankcase is tightly fixed to the cross pipe of the vehicle body frame. Therefore, the engine functions as a reinforcing member of the vehicle body frame and a chain reaction force generated when the engine is driven and a road surface reaction force generated in traveling are efficiently transmitted to the vehicle body frame and the engine. Thus, rigidity against these forces can be favorably ensured.
In the structure of the motorcycle relating to the above-described Patent Document 1, the rigidity of the vehicle body frame can be favorably ensured by the engine. However, in some cases, this structure is not necessarily favorable for a vehicle desired to ensure a certain level of flexibility in the vehicle body frame to ensure favorable vehicle control performance.
Specifically, in the case of a vehicle intended to travel on dirt roads or a vehicle intended to travel on both dirt roads and public roads (on-off category), ensuring the vehicle control performance is often desired more than ensuring the rigidity of the vehicle body frame. In such a vehicle, the structure relating to the above-described Patent Document 1 is not necessarily favorable in some cases.
However, if the rigidity of the vehicle body frame is lowered, concerns arise in ensuring the rigidity against the chain reaction force generated when the engine is driven and the road surface reaction force generated in traveling.
Therefore, it is desired to ensure the rigidity by allowing the chain reaction force and the road surface reaction force to be efficiently transmitted to a component like the vehicle body frame for which rigidity is ensured in a vehicle meeting demands that the vehicle control performance can be ensured with ensuing of adequate rigidity of the vehicle body frame.